Matsuo Basho writes :
On the first day of fourth month, we paid our respects to The Mountain. In ancient times the name of this mountain used to be written to read Mount Two Disasters, but when the Great Teacher Kukai founded the temple, he changed it to Sunlight.

He must have foreseen the future a thousand years ahead: today the light from this place illuminates the entire heaven, its beneficience fills the whole land, and the easeful home for all four classes of people is peaceful. Awestruck, i was barely able to take up my brush:

Nikkoo is surrounded by mountains and ancient forest, and is much visited in the autumn for its maple leaf colouring. This is my tenth year staying there for a while, in different seasons -- though never so far in the depth of winter, when houses are so hard to heat.
During the first stay, I looked at the well known sites visited by visitors -- since then, I have enjoyed the company of my friends, the excellent modern art museum and the walks into the deep mountains, where waterfalls fall in places where more bears than humans have ever seen them.

Isabelle Prondzynski

Bashoo's haiku touches a deep chord in the spring time. Bashoo's story (as translated in 1966 by Nobuyuki Yuasa, whose work was so favourably reviewed by the Japan Times only a few days ago), goes like this :

On the first day of April, I climbed Mount Nikkoo to do homage to the holiest of shrines upon it. This mountain used to be calledNi koo (futa ara) (二荒). When the high priest Kuukai built a temple upon it, however, he changed the name to Nikkoo (日光）, which means the bright beams of the sun.

Kuukai must have had the power to see a thousand years into the future, for the mountain is now the seat of the most sacred of all shrines, and its benevolent power prevails throughout the land, embracing the entire people, like the bright beams of the sun.
To say more about the shrine would be to violate its holiness.

It was with awe
That I beheld
Fresh leaves, green leaves,
Bright in the sun.

The name Fudaraku was derived from Potalaka in Sanskrit, which is said to be the name of a mountain where Kan'non, or Avalokitesvara in Skt. is believed to reside. Some believe the mountain really exists near Cape Comorin, India.
The Potala Palace in Lhasa, Tibet also originates in Potalaka and the Dalai Lama is thought to be an incarnation of Kan'non. In Japan, Toshogu Shrine and Futara-san {foo-tah-rah-san} Shrine in Nikko, Tochigi Prefecture, one of the most famous tourist attractions, is also associated with Potalaka.

Futara-san stems from Potalaka as the similar pronunciation of both words suggest, and Nikko is another mode of pronunciation of Futara, though their kanji (Chinese) characters are different.http://www.asahi-net.or.jp/~QM9T-KNDU/fudaraku.htm

Futarasan Shine originated as a small shrine dedicated to the god of Mt. Futara (the current Mt. Nantai). It was first erected by a priest named Shoto in 767 and in 782 he is said to have succeeded in reaching the summit where he built Okumiya Shrine. In the centuries since, it has been a focal point of Nikko area religious worship.

In the year 1617, Futarasan Shrine found itself supported by the Tokugawa Shogunate in order for the shrine to act as a guardian of the nearby Toshogu Shrine. During the Meiji era however, as the Tokugawa Shogunate started to crumble, the shrine was separated from the temple it protected in the nationwide policy of separating Buddhism and Shintoism.

Interestingly, the Chinese characters representing the name Futara can also be read as "Niko." And it is said that the famed Priest Kukai (also known as Kobo Daishi) indeed read them as such thereby giving the local area the name it retains until this day - "Nikko."http://www.jal.com/world/en/guidetojapan/world_heritage/nikko/see/index02.html

Futara-san-jinja Shrine is said to bring happiness and marriage for those who visit. Legend has it that the Futara-Reisen, the sacred fountain there, has water that restores youth.http://www.jnto.go.jp/eng/RTG/RI/kanto/tochigi/nikkousinai/nikkousinai.html

The bridge has been renovated and was reopened last year (2005) -- most splendid, and a great gateway into the whole site of shrines and temples, which has been declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

The whole area is situated on a mountainside, in a dense forest of ancient cryptomeria japonica (sugi), all of which really "vaut le voyage", as the Guide Michelin would say (and indeed probably does!).

so holy:
green leaves, young leaves,
in sun's light -- David Landis Barnhill

Comment by Barnhill:
Basho is at Mt. Nikkoo, which literally means "sun's light." It is the site of an ancient Buddhist temple established by Kuukai as well as a Shinto shrine [Tooshoo Shrine] and mausoleum of the founder of the Tokugawa shogunate, Ieyasu (1542-1616). The original version reads:
"so holy: / down even to the darkness beneath the trees, / the sun's light"
('ara tooto / ko no shitayami mo / hi no hikari').

Wednesday, January 04, 2012New Year's arrow festival in Nikko
A New Year festival with shooting arrows symbolizing prayers for good health and safety took place at a shrine in Nikko, north of Tokyo, on Wednesday.

The annual ritual at Futarasan Shrine is based on an ancient legend. It's said that a master archer shot an arrow that settled a territorial dispute between the deity of Mount Nantai in Nikko and the divinity of Mount Akagi, about 40 kilometers away to the southwest.